RomaniaxReader~Sustenance Pact~Final

Sustenance Pact ~Ch 21~ Final

“So is this the world you had imagined?”

Arthur was sitting with his chin on a curled fist with a smug air of supremacy over the headquarters that he and the others had taken over. GERUN was officially finished. There had not been enough preparation time taken by the humans to fight back. The humans had not been strong enough. It was done.

“My friend, you wouldn’t understand how exhilarating it feels to have finally succeeded,” the vampire sighed with a smile. “You have had the fortune of being able to preserve your soul mate for all eternity. You should be grateful.”

Vladimir could only look away. In the time that they had seized GERUN’s main headquarters, Lukas and Arthur had pillaged the entire information docks in search of any vital information that might have explained anything behind the causes of vampirism and soul mates. There had been nothing.

Why is that? he wondered. All of these centuries past, and GERUN is the oldest faction against beings like us. He absentmindedly fiddled with the ribbon on his hat. Is it because they didn’t know…or was it because there was no explanation to begin with?

“I’m back,” Lukas greeted his companions as he entered the main courtroom where a few weeks ago, Vladimir and ______________ had been held on a ridiculous trial.

Arthur sat up and looked at his pale friend.

“How did the procedures go?”

Lukas, in turn, made no effort to move the muscles on his perfect face. “Failed,” he said, his lips barely moving like a ventriloquist. “All of them.”

“Bloody hell…” Arthur mumbled, his voice heavy with disappointment. “The young ones, too?”

Lukas nodded.

Vladimir sighed. The GERUN staff had been the first ones to go. A few had escaped, however. At the time, Arthur and Lukas had not thought too strongly of them, but Vladimir had recognized some of them: the fumbling informant, the weapons supplier, the elite hunter that had nearly killed him once before—even the albino asshole.

But…

“Vladimir, your soul mate amazes me,” Arthur chuckled hopelessly shaking his head in the same way a general might have when realizing he had to surrender his men.

“How did she do it?” he asked. “What makes her so special? She was as human as the rest of them were, and yet none of the others were able to produce the same successful results as she had been able to.”

“I don’t know,” Vladimir answered. He was being completely honest. At the time _____________ had demanded that he change her back, he had left out parts of her memories—the memories of the procedure. No one—especially someone he loved—should have had to carry around those wretched memories. No one.

On the other hand, that meant she would not be able to tell them what she had felt, herself. Vladimir had refused to give her back those memories. Even if he wanted to give them back now, he wasn’t sure she could make anything of them.

“_____________...” he suddenly said. “How is she?”

“She is still asleep,” Lukas said.

“Still?” Vladimir blinked. “It’s been nearly a month.”

“She is still asleep,” Lukas repeated himself.

Arthur stretched and flopped around in the high-judge’s chair. It wasn’t so much that he felt himself to be a ruler, rather he had proclaimed that he enjoyed making a mockery of the human’s governing society.

“Vladimir, why bother with those low-life walking blood bags? I’d assume your soul mate’s blood is much more succulent than any other human you’ve tasted.”

“You’re right,” Vladimir admitted, “but it’s not courteous. The pact I initially had with her was that I would only drink her blood if I promised to help her.”

“And now you play the gentleman,” Arthur scoffed. “It’s really a shame she has to be asleep. Who knows? It might be a long time before she wakes up.”

“The sun will still rise,” Lukas spoke out of place. “There will be another day.”

“And we have all of eternity to wait,” Arthur added with a chuckle. He patted Vladimir’s back. “Lighten up, Vlad. In the meantime, you can help us gather some more humans. Did you know we didn’t get all of the members yet? There are still some GERUN cockroaches still scattered around the city. When we clean up here, we can hop on over to the other headquarters.”

“How fun,” Vladimir commented utterly void of interest. With nothing else better to do, he thought to see ______________ and leapt down from his mantle.

“Going to pay your sweetheart a visit?” Arthur asked.

Vladimir said nothing and went on his way.

When he had reached the place where ____________ laid, he knelt by his usual spot and watched as she slept her time away. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened when she had passed out. He had stopped Lukas—or so he thought—but only a few moments later, _____________ had collapsed on the floor, her heart barely beating.

Had he gone to the doctors, they might have addressed it as a coma, but Vladimir knew it was different. There had been dark magic involved, and this was unlike anything he was familiar with. Her state was unnatural. She was cold to the touch. Even as Vladimir wrapped his hand around hers, he still felt as cold as he always did in his current form.

In times like these, he had often wondered what might have happened had she woken up. What would he tell her? That the organization that she had worked for was destroyed? That the vampires had won?

It would have been easier to hex her. She could have gone by as normal—but even that would prove to be a temporary solution sooner or later.

“How’s she holding up?” a voice asked.

Vladimir looked behind him. Arthur was standing in the open doorway.

“Fine,” he said.

“Humans are fascinating creatures. Pathetic, but fascinating.”

Vladimir smirked. “As if you weren’t one yourself.”

“I’ve forgotten what it was like being one.”

“That reminds me. You never did answer my question.”

Arthur questionably raised his eyebrows. “Which one?”

Vladimir stared at him for a moment before moving his eyes back on his soul mate.

“Never mind,” he said. “It’s not important. Your answer wouldn't make a difference anyway.” And it was true.





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Thank you for reading~

-GydroZMaa